Michy's/miami

May 26, 2006|Lyn Farmer Dining Columnist

Michy is Michelle Bernstein, a chef who finally has a dining room to call her own. Bernstein has always had a commanding presence, dating back to her days a decade ago at Redfish Grill in Coral Gables' Matheson Hammock. She traded the Hammock for South Beach with stints at Tantra and The Strand and Azul at Miami's Mandarin Oriental Hotel.

In each kitchen, she showed an uncompromising devotion to fresh, top-quality ingredients and honed a style that was vaguely Caribbean and distinctly urban with, at Azul, Asian overtones. Michy's, though, offers the first menu where one has the sense we're getting pure Bernstein. She owns the restaurant with her husband David Rodriguez.

That the name is a nickname gives a glimpse at the restaurant's determination to offer Bernstein's food an environment that is relatively casual. The restaurant is informal, almost stark, in its single room design. The dining area is a large square packed uncomfortably close with tables and illuminated with hard white light.

At the back of the room there is a large, deep bar clearly designed more for dining than sampling wine. The restaurant has a continuing buzz that rivals anything on South Beach. There are a dozen wines available by the glass and another four dozen or so available only in full bottle and squeezed onto the two pages of a difficult to read wine list. It's a good selection for a neighborhood restaurant, but I was surprised none are offered in half bottles since every one of the nearly 30 items on the menu are available in both half and full portions.

The opportunity to split dishes is at the heart of Bernstein's wish that diners try smaller portions of more dishes. To encourage that even among a rapidly developing coterie of regulars, she also changes the basic menu with admirable frequency, honing her sense of what works with a crowd that is partly local and partly people who trek from Broward and Palm Beach counties.

Speaking with fellow diners on half a dozen visits to Michy's, many had tried Bernstein's cooking before but nearly an equal number had heard of her but never been willing to spring for the insanely high prices at Azul. Best of all, I didn't encounter anyone who was disappointed.

Just as Bernstein divides her menu in to tapas-sized portions as well as larger orders, the dishes themselves fall into two categories: those that work with scintillating harmony and those that are good but lack the sparkle fans associate with Bernstein's eclectic approach in the kitchen.

The first group is the larger and creates a rewarding degree of excitement for food lovers, especially at larger tables since a table of six could easily sample nearly everything on the menu. My favorite dishes include a brightly flavored tuna carpaccio with celery root salad and a splash of soy ($8 for a half portion, $13 for a full portion), and tasty, melt-in-your-mouth croquetas of ham and blue cheese ($7/$11). They're light, crunchy on the outside and gooey within and the flavors are perfectly balanced with fig marmalade.

Seared scallops with a dollop of spicy oxtail stew for contrast ($12/$20) is a winner, as is slow cooked beef short rib ($15/$26). Another Bernstein hallmark is her attention to details, like pairing crisp-cooked duck leg confit with a bit of salad made from thin-sliced Brussel sprouts, available only in a single small portion ($12), and matching up crisp fried bits of sweetbread with crisp, bacony lardoons and binding the two with a splash of sour orange glaze ($10/$18).

In the far smaller second group of less successful dishes, I include mushy potato gnocchi with mushrooms and St. Andre cheese ($11/$19), a dish that has a bland texture and is too rich. Bernstein's take on foie gras terrine ($13/$20) is served in a miniscule slice and turns out to be surprisingly tepid in flavor, and the "Steak Frite" made from flank steak is light on flavor and hardly helped by a bland version of Bernaise sauce ($16/$27).

These are mostly small complaints, and there is certainly nothing on the menu that spoils an evening at Michy's. The service staff tries valiantly and mostly succeeds at keeping up with the hoards that visit the restaurant as if it were a shrine, and maybe it is, after a fashion. It is certainly a testament to the idea that neighborhood dining and menu innovation not only can coexist but thrive together.

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If you would like to contact freelance writer Lyn Farmer, e-mail him at diningout@sun-sentinel.com or write to him in care of the Sun-Sentinel.